ANN ARBOR, Mich., September 28, 2005 - ProQuest Information and Learning will digitize the 20th Century House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, bringing the total archive to nearly 10 million pages, spanning the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. Upon its release in December, 20th Century House of Commons Parliamentary Papers will enlarge the entire archive to provide continuous and cross-searchable coverage of more than two centuries of social, political, economic and foreign policy records. ProQuest Information and Learning is a publisher of content for libraries and educational institutions worldwide.

"These papers are of rich research value, recording events from the early 1800s through the two World Wars to today.  They influenced public opinion and social and political philosophy, and provided a forum for the ideas of hundreds of thinkers," said Mary Sauer-Games, ProQuest's vice-president of publishing for Chadwyck-Healey products.  "The Parliamentary Papers are the single most detailed primary source for research on Britain, its former colonies, and the world, and now every page is available online from 1801 right up to current times."

The papers include bills, reports, correspondence and command papers.  As with the 19^th Century papers, they will be full-text searchable with hit-term highlighting, bibliographic data and subject indexing.  High-quality scans of the original printed papers will allow users to see all of the accompanying illustrations, statistics and maps. 

In addition to full-text searching, users will be able to search and browse various specific fields, including title, subject, author, Parliamentary session, paper type, year and others.  Research results will include brief bibliographic citations with hyperlinks to more detailed records and related documents.  Researchers will also be able to view complete, digitized images of original pages from all the works in the database and even manipulate them.  For example, users can zoom in and out, print pages one at a time, or navigate between illustrations only. 

20^th Century House of Commons Parliamentary Papers is part of ProQuest's ongoing initiative to expand access to the world's most significant historical research collections.  The company recently announced a number of projects to support faster, more comprehensive research on the 19th Century.  Later this year, ProQuest will launch C19: The Nineteenth Century Index -- a finding tool for 19th-century materials in multiple formats – which will include the first web-enabled version of the celebrated Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals (1824-1900).  British Periodicals, a digital archive of rare serials from the 17^th through early 20th centuries is also in the works.  

For more information about ProQuest research products visit the company on the Web at www.proquest.com.

About ProQuest
ProQuest creates specialized information resources and technologies that propel successful research, discovery, and lifelong learning. A global leader in serving libraries of all types, ProQuest offers the expertise of such respected brands as Chadwyck-Healey™, UMI®, SIRS®, and eLibrary®. With Serials Solutions®, Ulrich's™, RefWorks®, COS™, Dialog® and now Bowker® part of the ProQuest brand family, the company supports the breadth of the information community with innovative discovery solutions that power the business of books and the best in research experience.

More than a content provider or aggregator, ProQuest is an information partner, creating indispensable research solutions that connect people and information. Through innovative, user-centered discovery technology, ProQuest offers billions of pages of global content that includes historical newspapers, dissertations, and uniquely relevant resources for researchers of any age and sophistication—including content not likely to be digitized by others. Inspired by its customers and their end users, ProQuest is working toward a future that blends information accessibility with community to further enhance learning and encourage lifelong enrichment.

For more information, visit www.proquest.com or the ProQuest parent company website, www.cig.com.